<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp29fb9fdyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Oh, so, the Wiki doesn't use standard British English then.....? Hmmm. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Your final comment reminds me of my IT Course. "Definition of Recursion: See Recursion". ;-)</div><div><br></div><div class="ydp29fb9fdsignature"><div style="font-family:new times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div>Regards,</div><div dir="ltr">Peter</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div><div><br></div>
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<div>>On Thursday, 6 February 2020, 17:39:35 GMT, Paul Allen <pla16021@gmail.com> wrote:
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<div><div id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">>On Thu, 6 Feb 2020 at 17:09, Peter Neale via Tagging <<a shape="rect" href="mailto:tagging@openstreetmap.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tagging@openstreetmap.org</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote"><blockquote class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;"><div><br clear="none"><div id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail-m_6832216044852583167ydpc5f9c25yahoo_quoted_1527644632"><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div>"abstain /əbˈsteɪn/</div><div>verb</div><div>[...]<span id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124goog_631111251"></span><span id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124goog_631111252"></span><br clear="none"></div><div>Powered by Oxford Dictionaries"</div></div><br clear="none"></div><div dir="ltr">So an abstention is NOT a vote</div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br clear="none"></div><div>>I thought I gave a link to <a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstention" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstention</a></div><div>>but I must have forgotten. I'll include the relevant parts here.<br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div style="margin-left:40px;"><b>> Abstention</b> is a term in <a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election" title="Election" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">election</a> procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in <a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_procedure" title="Parliamentary procedure" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">parliamentary procedure</a>, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot.<sup class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail-reference" id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail-cite_ref-1"><a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstention#cite_note-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">[1]</a></sup> Abstention must be contrasted with "<a shape="rect" class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail-mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_vote" title="Blank vote" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">blank vote</a>",
in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by marking it
wrongly or by not marking anything at all. A "blank (or white) voter"
has voted, although their vote may be considered a <a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_vote" title="Spoilt vote" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">spoilt vote</a>, <br clear="none"></div><div style="margin-left:40px;"><br clear="none"></div>>So what we have in the approval process, despite being called an abstention,</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>is NOT an abstention. It's a blank vote, aka white vote, because a ballot has</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>been cast. The wiki confuses the terms "ballot" and "vote" in places, as well</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>as misusing the term "abstention."<br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote"><br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>Also, <br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote" style="margin-left:40px;">>Abstentions do not count in tallying the vote negatively or positively;
when members abstain, they are in effect attending only to contribute to
a <a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum" title="Quorum" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" fg_scanned="1">quorum</a>. White votes, however, may be counted in the total of votes, depending on the legislation. </div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote"><br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>The "legislation" (in this case past consensus of how things operate) was that</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>blank/white votes ARE counted in the total of votes. Whether that should be the</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>case going forward is something we could vote on. After we've voted on the</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>rules for voting. After we've voted on the rules for voting on the rules for</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>voting.<div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124yqt8758252398" id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124yqtfd85626"><br clear="none"></div></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124yqt8758252398" id="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124yqtfd56238"><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote"><br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">-- <br clear="none"></div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote">>Paul</div><div class="ydp7907745cyiv2100442124gmail_quote"><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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